The Apryl Fool 
featuring Haruomi Hosono

The Apryl Fool

Considered his first album.This is some sort of re-issued late 60s psychadelic album featuring Hosono as presumably bassist and was re-released on CD in the 1990s.

Happy End

Happy End 70.8.1 lp: URC URL-1015 , cd: TOCT-10458, TOCT-8945
first album, CD reissued in 1998 with cardboard sleeve. Red and yellow cover with signs. Quite removed from the Hosono of today, but you can spot him.

KAZE MACHI ROMAN (*) 71.11.1 lp: URC URG-4009, cd: TOCT-10457, TOCT-8946

Live On Stage (*) cd:TOCT-10459, TOCT-9288

Happy End (*) 73.2.25 Bellwood OFL-10 (a different album) cd: KICS-8101

LIVE !! (*)cd: KICS-8103

Happy End SINGLES (*)cd: KICS-8104

Hosono House

This is non-electronic R&B with vocals. Hosono's first solo album is probably only of historic interest to electronic fans. I've noticed a 90s LP reissue available.

1. Rock-a-bye My Baby
2. Boku wa chotto (I'm Afraid I Won't)
3. Choo-choo gatagoto (Choo-choo Shaking)
4. Owari no kisetsu (Season of Farewell)
5. Fuyu-goe ([Going through Winter])
6. Party
7. Fuku wa uchi, oni wa soto (Welcome Happiness, No Devils)
8. Juusho futei mushoku teishunyu (No Address, No Job, Very Low Income)
9. Koi wa momoiro (Peach-sweet Love)
10. Bara to yaju (Rose and Beas)
11. Ai-ai-gasa (Umbrella for Two)

Tin Pan Alley

CARAMEL MAMA (*) 75.11.25 lp: Panam GW-4017 (possibly from '74?)

TIN PAN ALLEY 2 (*) 77.9.5 ? lp: Panam GW-4032 (possibly from '75?)

(*) IZUMI YUKIMURA SUPER GENERATION has some sort of CARAMEL MAMA connection ('74)

(*) NORIO MAEDA & TIN PAN ALLEY ?

(*) YELLOW MAGIC CARNIVAL(1975) is a Tin Pan Alley album title I've seen show up. Maybe its a compilation?? Obviously the name tries to echo YMO, but I suspect this was renamed after the fact.

Tin Pan Alley reformed as just Tin Pan in 2000 for an album and TV concert after they did a 1999 single backing Chappie

2001 saw the reissue of a TIN PAN ALLEY & MEMBER'S BOX as an 11 CD set (CRCP-50046-56) (*)

1. SIGERU SUZUKI / BAND WAGON (75.3.25)
2. HARUOMI HOSONO / TROPICAL DANDY ( 75.6.25 )
3. TIN PAN ALLEY / CARAMEL MAMA ( 75.11.25)
4. HARUOMI HOSONO / TAIAN YOKO ( 75.7.25 )
5. SIGERU SUZUKI / LAGOON ( 75.12.5 )
6. TIN PAN ALLEY / TIN PAN ALLEY 2 ( 77.9.5 )
7. MASATAKA MATSUTOYA / YORU NO TABIBITO ( 77.11.25 )
8. SIGERU SUZUKI / CAUTION! ( 78.1.25 )
9. SIGERU SUZUKI / TELESCOPE ( 78.11.25 )
10. SIGERU SUZUKI / COSMOS '51 ( 79.9.5)
11. TATEO HAYASHI / SUPER PERCUSSION ( 79.11.25 )

Hosono

Tropical Dandy

This and the following are in the tropical vein. Produced by Hosono & Tin Pan Alley. The song Honeymoon from Medicine Compilation appears in it's original version on this album. Non Electronic.

1. Chatanooga choo-choo
2. Hurricane Dorothy
3. Kinu kaido (Silk Road)
4. Nettai yo (Tropical Night)
5. Pekin Duck
6. Hyouryu ki (Diary for Wandering)
7. Honey Moon
8. Sanji no komoriuta (Three O'clock Lullaby)
9. Sanji no komoriuta
10. Hyouryu ki

Bon Voyage Co.

Taian Yoko

Hosono considers this a solo album though the billing implies a proper band. I've seen it mistakenly spelled "Von Voyage Co." a few times due to transliteration.

1. Cho-cho san
2. Hong Kong Blues
3. "Sayonara", the Japanese Farewell Song
4. Roochoo Gambo
5. Taian yoko
6. Tokyo Shyness Boy
7. Black Peanuts
8. Chow Chow Dog
9. Pom pom joki
10. Exotica Lullaby

HARRY HOSONO AND THE YELLOW MAGIC BAND

Paraiso

Recorded Dec 77-Jan78 Yukihiro Takahashi and Sakamoto and HH play together onl on one track. The band name was a rather obscure takeoff on a Captain Beefheart song title as rumor has it. This is often considered the definitive pre-YMO album though Takahashi's contemporarily recorded suave French-Pop album "Saravah" has all 3 future YMO members working together far more extensively. The style here is Exotica and more like a tropical band album than a synth album so musically this isn't much connected with YMO's style apart from YMO carrying over many exotica refrencesw on the debut, so Parasio is relatively distant from YMO (Cochin Moon is actually closer to YMO due to heavy synth use). There is synth though. Interestingly, Sakamoto did his own album of roughly this kind of sound though more pop / disco on his album Summer Nerves.

1. Tokio Rush
2. Shimendoka
3. Japanese Rhumba
4. Asatoya Yunta
5. Fujiyama Mama
6. Femme Fatale
7. Shambhala Signal
8. Worry Beads
9. Paraiso

Haruomi Hosono, Shigeru Suzuki, Tatsuro Yamashita

Pacific

The artists were all in Tin Pan Alley but here they play their own tracks rather than as a band. Exotica material. Sakamoto plays as a session musician on most cuts, sometimes synth. Hosono on 3 cuts, which he wrote. Hosono is not the producer. Contains RS and HH doing a wild early synth version of YMO's Cosmic Surfin which is really something and an important precursor to YMO's formation.

HOSONO & YOKOO

Cochin Moon

Superb. Way ahead of its time with trance-like synths and exotic world colors. The album is co-credited to famous pop (graphic) artist Tadanori Yokoo, who did the cover, but seemingly neither wrote nor played on it. I was able to get Yokoo-san to autograph my LP cover during a 1991 NYC speaking engagement. He laughed with slight embarrassment that anyone in the US would have a copy (and on vinyl). Ryuichi Sakamoto plays synths also and his playing style is evident. Hideki Matsutake, who would later do the sequencer work for YMO and front the synth-based band, Logic System, programs the sequencer here. A brilliant album. This is the first album that sounds like the Hosono we are used to.

SADLY OUT OF PRINT since the mid 90s. There must be some kind of rights licensing problem as this is perhaps the most notable YMO member related album to have been out of print a very long time. Track 4 was included on the Hosono Box collection in 2000.

1. Hotel Malabar Ground Floor (Triangle Circuit on the sea-forest)
2. Hotel Malabar Upper Floor (Moving Triangle)
3. Hotel Malabar Roof Garden (Rebel attack)
4. Hepatitis
5. Hum ghar sajan
6. Madam Consul General of Madras

Haruomi Hosono, Takahiko Ishikawa, Masataka Matsutohya

The Aegean Sea

Hosono on 2 cuts, which he wrote. He did not produce. This is similar Tropical material comparable to the album Pacific in concept though the other 2 this time are different Tin Pan Alley connected connected artists.

There are a mess of these "Sea" albums put out by Sony with very poor markings as to if there are unique tracks or is simply compiled from the other albums including Agean Sea and Pacific. I think the below are entirely previously released material. Ryuichi Sakamoto gets billed and shows up too via mostly tracks taken from his early album Summer Nerves:

ISLAND MUSIC (CSCL-1301) no unique tracks

(*) OFF SHORE (CSCL-1303) no unique tracks

(*) NEW YORK (CSCL-1305) never seen it, presumably no unique tracks

Philharmony

After several years in YMO, HH released a slightly sparse but first-rate electronic solo album of alternating quirky songs and ambient-type instrumentals. Landmark early use of sampling. An intersting companion to YMO's album from this period Technodelic. Takahashi, Tachibana, Ueno all guest. 1982 was sort of a year off for YMO because Sakamoto was involved with acting and scoring Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence and Hosono used the time to produce a lot of work for others and make this album

1. Picnic
2. Funiculi Funicura (Denza-Kiyono-Aoki)
3. Luminescent-Hotaru
4. Platonic
5. In Limbo
6. Living-Dining-Kitchen
7. Birthday Party
8. Sports Men/Philharmony
9. Air-Condition

Yunemiru Yakusoko

A non-album track, Yunemiru Yakusoko appears on Gyakufunsha Shokogun No Maki by Kaiteiban Otoban Bikkuri House a rare cassette, YEN Box 1, this rare promo single and most commonly available on the Yen Memorial Album. Hosono also did a totally different later arrangement of this tune for Jun Togawa. I've debated with a collector on its relation to Philharmony. Its not exactly the same style but was recorded during the same period and has an arrangement style very similar to Funiculi Funicura -- so I'll just mention it here to be fairly chronological.

Sports Men / Philharmony

"Sangoku-shi" Main Theme / "Sangoku-shi" Love Theme (Hosono with Tamao Koike)

also on YEN Singles Alfa cd (x2): ALCA-208/209 which is out of print as is inclusion on YEN Box 2. Instrumental mix of Love Theme is on YEN BOX Vol1. The love theme with the vocals mixed out is just fantastic! Tightly sequenced Emulator stuff. On the regular version Koike's voice has too much reverb. Maybe digital reverb sounded exotic back then. The main theme is a more ponderous version of the melody. The instrumental love theme is the most thrilling.I found the regular theme in mono and edited, presumably dubbed from the original video tapes of the show's credit sequence on a Toshiba/EMI compilation CD of TV Puppet show themes. (The one with an orange cover and a beatnik muppet Bert lookalike)

Hosono produced many more tracks with Tamao Koike at the time presumably it was to become an album for her. YMO even composed and played on a track by her as a group. This single and a Tamao Koike single with the mentioned YMO track are the only released portion of what I presume was a shelved incomplete Koike album until YEN Box 2 came out with several other songs as bonus tracks released for the first time.

A mono TV edit appears in a late 1990s Toshiba/EMI compilation (TOCT-9355) of puppet TV show themes. That very much infers these themes were for a puppet program.

VIDEO GAME MUSIC (supervised by Haruomi Hosono)

VIDEO GAME MUSIC

A full length album of early-ish arcade game music and sound effects from Namco. This was the first full album of this kind of music, now a whole genre in Japan. Hosono arranges and produces (does not compose). Be warned-- this sounds like video games, not much like HH. This is not a Hosono solo album per se, but it is produced by him and a different 12" single came out featuring him performing.

THE BEST OF VIDEO GAME MUSIC

1. Xevious
2. Bosconian
3. Pac-Man
4. Phozon
5. Mappy
6. Libble Rabble
7. Pole Position
8. New Rally-X
9. Dig Dug
10. Galaga
11. Fanfare from Pole Position II *
12. Groba *
13. Dig Dug II *
14. Dragon Buster *
15. Metro Cross (Part II) *
16. Gaplus *
17. The Tower of Druaga *

There is a Volume II, Return of Video Game Music that Hosono did not work on. Tracks 11 to 17 are from Vol. 2. (no Hosono involvement). This 2 album pairing is long out of print but the separate albums are back in print - see below.

HARUOMI HOSONO
GAME SOUND LEGEND SERIES VOL.1 :

VIDEO GAME MUSIC

(+) SGCD-007

a 1999 reissue. I've not inspected one but presumably its the above volume 1 original contents.

SUPER XEVIOUS / Galpus / Tower of Druaga

Billed as Super Xevious (Music by Haruomi Hosono) , this is more like a pop track with game sounds. In Holland the 12" was billed as (Video Game Music Dance Mix) HOSONO. The B side material also has synth material added and is different from the more pure video game tracks of Video Game Music. Included in YEN Box vol 2. In other words this has clear and obvious Hosono playing, Video Game Music is more like the pure game sound.

It was reissued in 2001? as SUPER XEVIOUS, for the first time as a stand alone CD with the Gust Notch Mix below as a bonus

Super Xevious

A version called Super Xevious (Gust Notch Mix) appears on YEN BONUS Disc on YEN Box Vol1. I think it is this 7" promo. I've heard Gust Notch is like an exclamation for having a good score if by chance you are wondering if Gust Notch is the guy doing the remix :-)

The return of video game music
(aka) Video Game Music Volume 2

Hana ni mizu

2 tracks Talking an early version of The Endless Talking and Growth . This was in-store ambient music offered to the public for a short time on a retail cassette with a booklet. No longer available and rare.

HARUOMI HOSONO PRESENTS

Non-Standard Mixture

The Making of Non-Standard Music/The Making of Monad Music

One side of techno pop for his label, Non-Standard. The reverse side is Monad, his ambient label. Both were sub-labels of Techiku. I hear this came with a manga book. I guess mine was stolen. Terre Thaemlitz told me these ambient tracks were particularly inspiring. Reissued in 2001 on CD.

All but the latest CD versions of S-F-X (below) contain these tracks as bonuses so unless you want to get the vinyl with the manga you might consider S-F-X to get both

1. Non-Standard Mixture
2. Medium Composition; #1
3. Medium Composition; #2
4. 3.6.9

FRIENDS OF EARTH was Hosono's post YMO band. It first it refered to his keyboards (predominantly Kurzweil K250), later actual musicians officially joined in. The music is a blend of drum-machine oriented technopop with funk / hip hop. Since most are EPs (Maxi Singles), they have since been combined on CDs.

HARUOMI HOSNO WITH FRIENDS OF EARTH

S-F-X

A mix of techno-pop and experimental tracks with lots of Close Encounters samples. The all but the latest CDs of this release add the tracks from The Making of Non Standard Music. (marked by "*") Guests: Kubota and Sandii, Koshi, Nishimura. Still available at a budget price. This album is usually considered Hosono solo, not an F.O.E. album.

CD Contents:

1. Non-Standard Mixture*
2. Body Snatchers (special mix) -not certain how or it differs from the LP
3. Androgena
4. SFX
5. Strange Love
6. Alternative 3
7. Dark Side of the Star
8. Medium Composition; #1*
9. Medium Composition; #2*
10. 3.6.9 *

Friends of Earth

Friend or FOE?

Techno-pop tracks with 2 new versions of the songs on "S-F-X" and 2 new tracks. It had a joke "ADULT ONLY XXX" label on it. I'm not sure why. With Nonaka on side B. O.T.T. means "Over the Top" as we learn. Out of print.

1. World Famous Techno Pop
2. Return of the Body Snatchers (Exterminated mix)
3. Strange Love (Fonk version)
4. OTT Manifest (OTT mix)

F.O.E.#1

Decline of O.T.T.

4 frantic tracks including the super goofy "Dance Hall".F.O.E. are Nonaka, Hosono, Nishimura. Guests: Sandii, Miharu Koshi, Makato Kubata cameo.Oout of print.

1. Dance Hall
2. Agricult
3. Lunar Gloom
4. Decline of the City

The World of F.O.E.

combines Friend or FOE? and Decline of O.T.T. into one CD

Out of print.

F.O.E.#1

Sex, Energy and Star

Full length album. This is the one with guests James Brown, Maceo Parker and Anton Fier and tons of Kurzewil K250. Plenty of drums and sequences. Since the real James Brown appears (on Sex Machine), nobody insults him with anything too strange or deconstructed for beter or worse.

Sex Machine/(instrumental)

(@) 86.5.1 7" Non Standard 07NS-104

.The instrumental version seems to be on the album but I'm unable to confirm. The A side, I suspect, is a different edit with a different intro. It can be heard on the Teichiku volume of the P-Vine techno ca-yo series

F.O.E. # 1 (?)

Come Back

F.O.E. featuring HARUOMI HOSONO with President-BPM and SEKOH ITOH on the A side. Another act on the B side, rare

Return of F.O.E. see my remix page

Nokto de la Galaksia Fervojo (Soundtrack)

Score to the animated fable "Night on the Galactic Railroad". The name and linear notes are in Esparanto. There was a rumored Esparanto language version, but the version I have is in Japanese. Simple and elegant piano and synth melodies with a memorable theme a little like Satie. Fantastic *LP* packaging and printing. Now available at a budget price.(normal CD package) Also there an English subtitled U..S. VHS/DVD release of the film.

• 1. La Ceftitolo
• 2. Temo el la Mondo de la Fantazia Kvara Dimensio
• 3. Fantazio Kaj Realo
• 4. En Tago Serena
• 5. La Kanto de la Rondiro de la Steloj
• 6. Fantazio de Giovanni
• 7. La Stelfesto de Centauro
• 8. La Masto de 'Tenkirin'
• 9. La Gojo
• 10. La Norda Kruco
• 11. La Pliocena Marbordo
• 12. La Historio en Fantazio
• 13. La HArpo de la Paradizo
• 14. La Travida Malgojo de Giovanni
• 15. La Pleja Felico
• 16. Temo de la Adiauo
• 17. Kuro
• 18. 45 Minutoj
• 19. Rekviem
• 20. Temo Finala

The MONAD Albums: These 4 ambient-like albums came out around the same time in 1986 and form a sort of set. They were reissued as a boxed in 2002

Coincidental Music

A sampler of un-released music for movies, TV, commercials and installation 1982-85. This is a good album to hear Hosono's vastly different styles of compositions, though the content is so varried it makes incoherent listening as a whole without programming your CD player.

1. Lichtenstein's 0.31 (recorded 11 Oct 1984)
2. Pietro Germi (re-recording version) 5.30 (recorded 7 July 1983)
3. Normandia 2.36 (recorded 11 July 1984)
4. The Man of China 1.50 (recorded 24 April 1985)
5. Sayokoskatti 4.45 (recorded 8 May 1982)
6. Mazinger "H" 3.14 (recorded 10 March 1984)
7. The Plan 0.31 (recorded 20 June 1985)
8. Nokto de la Galaksia Fervojo (re-recording version) 1.31 (recorded 22 Dec 1984)
9. George Don 1.01 (recorded 7 May 1984)
10. Bio Philosophy 4.40 (recorded 8 May 1984)
11. Memphis, Milano (re-recording version)10.27 (recorded 10 Aug 1982)

Mercuric Dance

All synth with a bit of percussion, though rather monochromatic. Recorded 1983-4. For a modern dance ensemble. A video version was once availablet. (Emotion BEB-33)

1. Sunnyside of the Water
2. Mercuric Dance
3. Formation of the Venus
4. Down to the Earth
5. Fossil of Flame - Fifty Bell-Trees
6. Prepared Quartz
7. Sea of tau
8. Windy Land
9. To the Air

Paradise View (Soundtrack)

An album of very interesting, sampled and re-assembled Okinawan music with an emphasis on gamelan-like sounds. I got a chuckle when a Village Voice film critic commented on the wonderful, authentic Okinawan score ("authentic" Hosono and his K250 that is). In the film, Hosono plays a supporting role as a sensitive, but out of his element Japanese grade school teacher transplanted to Okinawa. The big in-joke is that one of the teenage girls in the story has a YMO shrine in her room and seems quite infatuated, yet has no apparent interest in her school teacher and his resembalance to a YMO member. This was the first Okinawan language feature film and according to the IMDB co-stars Jun Togawa though when I saw the film quite some time ago I didn't know what she looked like or had a translation of the cast list.

1. The Image of a Paradise
2. The Image of a View
3. Mabui Dance
4. Yuta's Pray
5. Atti
6. Wheels on Fire
7. The Truck on the Sea
8. Roochoo Jazz
9. The Paradise View

The Endless Talking

If you can't stand repetition, then "Endless" is the operating word here. This was for an Italian art installation. 13 bright, quirky and repetetive synth pieces. Recorded 25 April 1985.

1. Mercuryfall
2. The Animal's Opinion
3. Insects Insists Insecurity
4. The Long Story of a Humankind
5. The First One in Heaven
6. Sequential Opera Circuit
7. Trembling #1
8. The Endless Talking
9. Scratched
10. Szymanowsky Bird
11. Digitally Sampled Etnography
12. La Pliocena/Birdoj
13. Trembling #2

The Tale of Genji (Soundtrack)

Genji Monogatari

A fascinating, traditional-sounding Japanese score with a large amount of lush synth work. A very rich and dream-like score for an animated film. recorded in 1987 Very nice CD cover art. U.S. video released 1995. This and the later album Naga, while not identical in style, are not unrelated either. Out of print?Footlight records and Japanese used shops still have some. 32-8H-148 was the the initial release cat# and came in a cardboard box. I've never seen what else (presumably bookletwise) is contained in the box. I believe it is considered the first novel ever. The video was available in the U.S. in the mid 90s

Genji Monogatari was written by Murasaki Shikibu in about 950. It's a fictional story of a life of a Japanese aristocratic man.The names of tunes are related to the characters of Genji Monogatari. (info from MIEKO SUZUKI)

nick adds:

1. Tsukiyomi 3.03
2. Rajyoumon 4.10
3. Fujitsubo 3.03
4. Asatsuyu 3.04
5. Wakamurasaki 3.43
6. Miyasundokoro 2.59
7. Ukihashi 3.57
8. Kechigan 3.02
9. Samidare 6.46
10. Hikari 3.06
11. Kodama 5.16
12. Mai 5.45

Omni Sight Seeing

Songs and instrumentals with a world and even off-world :-) flavor. It includes nods to Duke Ellington and Wilhelm Reich. This is the kind of techno pop he does best. My copy came in a Digi-pack with a nice 26 page b&w booklet.

1. Esashi 1.50
2. Andadura 6.23
3. Orgone Box 6.05
4. Ohenro-San 2.44
5. Caravan 4.16
6. Retort 3.33
7. Laugh-Gas 11.26
8. Korendor 5.25
9. Pleocene 6.12

HIS

Nippon no Hito Folk

A new folk trio including Haruomi Hosono, Kiyoshiro Imawano (did a duo single with Sakamoto), Huyumi Sakamoto (no Ryuichi Sakamoto relation AFAIK). Light fun music, not much synth work. Hosono produced. Funny pictures of the trio in school uniforms on ice skates. Warning- not cutting edge or exotic. Has an acoustic rendition of Purple Haze.

Medicine Compilation from the Quiet Lodge

It concludes with a compostion by Laraaji and includes a collaborations with Yasuaki Shimizu, Akiko Yano. Nice ambient with pop touches. [recorded/mixed1991-92] It seems to compile various tracks he recorded at the time, but dispite the use of "compilation" in the album's name this is all new material unavailable elsewhere. With this is one of only 3 Hosono albums to get a U.S. release

1. Laughter Meditation 8.05
2. Honey Moon 5.04
3. Deira 3.23
4. Quiet Lodge Edit 5.26
5. Medicine Mix 6.32
6. Sand Storm Edit 3.39
7. Mabui Dance #2 9.46
8. Aiwoiwaiou 6.23
9. Armenian Orientation 10.36
10. Ambient Meditation 4.04

LOVE, PEACE & TRANCE LOVE, PEACE & TRANCE 1995.1.21 Epic/Sony cd : ESCB 1546 They are Mimori Yusa ("Love"), Miyako Koda ("Peace"), and Mishio Ogawa ("Trance"). Hosono gets to be the "&", I kid you not. Tracks 3-5 were mixed by Kim Cascone of Heavenly Music Corporation (who pointed out to me when I left his name off this page, no slight intended, good work). Kay (Something Wonderful) Nakayama does additional production on several tracks. First rate production and material. Cover art by Yokoo. If you want something hyper look elsewhere (NDE). Very relaxing but not boring. A great listen. Writers are in parenthesis. Early copies had a slipcover for the CD.

Yeelen (HH) Dreamtime Lovers (HH) Solaris (dip in the pool) Mammal Mama (HH) Kokoro Da (Killing Time) Dawn (d.i.p.) Whispers in the Dark (Thomas Newman) Hasu Kriya -single mix (Moro Fukuzawa) Hush - A Mandala Ni Pàli (Moro Fukuzawa) Aina (HH)

The album was inspired by Shinichi Nakazawa. He is a professor at the Faculty of Policy Studies, Chuo University, Tokyo. He majors in the religion. He has written many books, articles, movie pamphlets (like Naked Lunch by David Cronenberg), and so on. He is quite famous in Japan. He has also written the book Kanko with Hosono. He is the only person in Japan who was completely given instruction in Dzogchen, the consummate practice of Tibetan Buddhism. (Info from KATAYAMA Katsushi, who is a student of his)

Mimori Yusa is a popular solo artist.

Miyako Koda is the singer/lyricist in the duet Dip In the Pool ("d.i.p.").

Mishio Ogawa is a guest singer for the band Killing Time and other projects often with Bun Itakura. Here is a page with her discography in Japanese.
Also Akishige Kanno sent me corrected info about the band Killing Time and her, he has some Mishio Ogawa album info in English here .

LOVE, PEACE AND TRANCE Hasu Kriya 1994 Epic/Sony cd single: ESCB 1544 The 3 songs here in the same mix come as bonus tracks on the album above. In other words, unless you collect singles or want the CD booklet, you are better off with the full album above. I think the project name sums it up. These songs are the most pop-like pieces on the album listed above.

N.D.E.

Stands for Near Death Experience. With G. Hotoda, B. Laswell, Y. Terada credited on the cover. Shimizu also contributes. Heavy dose of Bill Laswell on this one. Solid catchy beats with lots of tabla and Arabic instruments. Good and hyper. Well engineered. If you care to damage the cd insert, you can peel off the top sticker revealing the album credits hidden on the backing paper. Hosono said he sent some tapes to Bill Laswell in New York, and he added to and mixed them.

1. Spinning Spirits 6.01
2. Navigations 9.28
3. Teaching of the Sphinx 6.28
4. Strange Attractor 9.48
5. Heliotherapy 4.21
6. Higher Flyer 6.01
7. Edge of the End 8.37
8. Aero 6.25

Good Sport

This seems to be a limited not in regular CD shops release for the Universiade 1995, Fukuoka (a sporting event). It did not go on sale in retail stores. Soundtrack-like it opens with clockwork sequencing with analog drums. Later some trad. Japanese music on synths and some impressionistic tracks. Miharu Koshi contributes a melody. I think HH's company Medium, had extra copies which found their way into a couple shops after the event was over. Out of print.

good sport fanfare [Miharu Koshi] sacred runner fin de siecle nostalgia troy (the videoman) torch music newage children bamboo wave a collage of life [HH: the last part by MK]

---

Naga

A superb album of instrumentals in the styles of many Asian countries. Includes a new version of one of the Paradise View tunes. Ambient, but also rich in melody and texture. Recorded 1991-95. This is actually his most recent totally solo album. He's done many since but they all have at least one full collaborator.

1. Hindustan
2. Naga
3. Taj-mahal
4. Himalaya
5. Sherpa (by Miharu Koshi)
6. Jado
7. Seasons
8. Dancing-High
9. Chaitya
10. Angkor Vat (-adaptation of "Mabui Dance" this version is also featured on the French compilation Ici Tokyo)
11. Serpent Cloud

Haruomi Hosono + Bill Laswell

Interpieces Organizations

• unfinished screams (HH+BL)
• interpieces (HH+BL)
• coiled (HH+BL)
• jeephead shaman (remix of "unfinished screams" by something wonderful)
• wakare michi (remix of "interpieces" by terre thaemlitz)
• y.s.tangled in tokyo (remix of "coiled" by yoshihiro sawasaki)
• bush (HH)

There is a 4 track LP for DJs.

HAT (Haruomi hosono, Atom heart, Tetsu inoue)

Tokyo ¥ Frankfurt ¥ New York

This is the first album release from Hosono's new label Daisy World (in Japan). It's Drum and Bass. Nicely done but I can't personally get excited by the sounds of these little units since there is just too much of it around. Still theres a lot going on and the semi improvised sounding melodies are much better than the non-melodies in this sort of music. Thanks to Terry Green for album info. Rather Interesting is Atom Heart's label. Aparently out of print.

Miharu Koshi & Harry Hosono Jr. (Swing Slow)

Swing Slow

This is an Ambient Lounge album. It's cute and funny. Good Morning Mr. Echo cracks me up with HH singing and Miharu providing the voice of Mr. Echo. Sometimes there is clever use of synths substituting for lounge instruments. So-si Suzuki is the man behind World Standard.

MIEKO SUZUKI gives me this info

Swing Slow (LP)

Vagabond and Harry

Who Wants The Hoola Hoop?

Vagabond and Harry Hosono do a tribute to David Seville of Alvin and the Chipmunks (who's creator passed away) and Les Paul while they are at it (who is still around), though the Les Paul tribute part isn't really apparent to me. Vagabond is a sort of lounge influenced multimedia duo which has no relation to the other well known Vagabond (Suzuki). What you get is an Xmas single with Vagabond and Harry as the featured performers on a track written with voices by Instant Cytron, who also do chipmunk voices themselves. Also a sound collage like many fan club Xmas B sides and an instrumental version of the title.

H.A.T.

DSP Holiday

The second HAT album. Perhaps more improv-y than the first. Hosono plays acoustic instruments. More different styles rather than just d&b. Each song comes with a CD-sized postcard of that song! Currently out of print in Japan but a 2/02 re-release in the U.S. on otodisc

Harry & Mac

Road to Louisiana

(@) 99.9.25 cd: ESCB-2040 lp: SYUM 126_LP

HH and Makoto Kubota (Sunsetz) have done their version of a back to basics blues thing. Only slight synth usage but very cool and fun unless you don't like this kind of music. Recorded at least in part in San Francisco, Garth Hudson, Jim Keltner are guests. On the way to Louisiana they take a detour in Hawaii and Sandii does a number :-)

Pre YMO

InDo

(@) 00.02.23 Re-wind cd: RWCL-20002

1. InDo 2000 [Hosono 2000 Remix] 5.27
2. InDo (Dub Squad Remix) 10.36
3. InDo (Audio Active Remix) 4.39
4. InDo (4 Hero Remix) 8.34
5. InDo (Masters at Work Remix) 7.25
6. InDo (Apache 61 Remix) 5.01
7. InDo [original 1978 'Pre YMO' version] 6.45 (Re-wind Recordings RWCL-20002)

This was apparently an unfinished track created by YMO members very early on and was neither finished nor in their fully developed style. The name is presumably in refrence to its Indian style. Another perhaps "Pre-YMO" track is generally considered the first version of Cosmic Surfin' on the album Pacific but this track, In-Do also has ties to Cochin Moon also from the same period as the latter has a strong synthesizer plays Indian music feel too as well as the very obscure Hosono solo track Datte, Hormon Love from the various artists album Ultra Psyche Bikkuri Party which is completely Indian sounding. If it weren't for the YMO ties it would be an unfinished little oddity like the one just mentioned, so that's where the criticism lies I guess. Not that its an unforgivable crime, but it has a certain feel of maxing out on something not very substantial to begin with.

"InDo"/Pre-YMO
Remixed by Junior Vasquez

(*) 2000 Rewind/HB cd5? single HBCD-002

01:Junior's Orchestramental
02:Junior's Magic Beats
03:Junior's Padapella

I don't know for certain but I've seen pre-release info saying a Junior Vasquez mix would be on the album proper (but wasn't). I guess it was saved for this set of mixes.

Twilo
Volume 1: Junior Vasquez Sampler

2000 Virgin Records America (Promo CD) DPRO-15720

This opens with an " InDo"/Pre-YMO remix billed simply as the "Junior Vasquez Remix" and clocks in at 6:50, don't know if it's a 4th mix by him or one of the above 3.
Many thanks to Gregor Meyer for the info!

Hosono Box 1969-2000

See my best of page. Includes rare and unreleased material.

Tin Pan Tin Pan 00.11.22 cd: RWCL 20009 This release is from the trio Tin Pan, a revival of his 1970s tropical act Tin Pan Alley. It has a rather retro sound so has no real electronic material. Its a mix of covers, new pieces in the style of the day and one track that was started in the 70s and finished now. The lineup is Shigeru Suzuki (not to be confused with Sohichiro Suzuki), Tatsuo Hayashi and HH. Akiko Yano as a guest joins for some scat on a song. Makoto Kubota writes a tune with some Miharu Koshi lyrics (she doesn't appear) though later Taeko Onuki does. Even a spoken word avant garde piece "Soylent Green" adapted from David Toop's writing. I get the feeling the Rewind label releases (RWCL prefix) seem to have dropped out of print.

Sketch Show

Audio Sponge

02.9.19 CTCR-14224

New Hosono-Takahashi collaborative project with Sakamoto as guest! more info

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